General Biographical Sketches

[Darius1968]

I wanted to get other peoples' input/suggestions about workflows on managing a collection(s) of actors/actresses, artists, models, musicians etc., in which there would be a biographical sketch that is common to all files, relevant to the given identity. 
For example, let's say, I have a collection of 18, 65, 250, or 1,975 images of a certain actor/actress.  Now, I want to be able to have 'at-my-fingertips' access to a list of movies/TV programs, in which the given identity has either had a role in, or has in some way, been associated.  How are people coping with such problems?  Thanks for input! 

[Mario]

Use a text Attribute (or several) to store all that info locally in your IMatch database?
Use a hyperlink attribute to store a link to IMDB, like

https://www.imdb.com/search/name/?name=morgan+freeman

[Darius1968]

Yeah, I was actually thinking along those lines.  One question, I came up with though, is as I first said, there's "a collection of 18, 65, 250, or 1,975 images", and more could yet be added.  So, although text/hyperlink (Can one include normal text within an hyperlink attribute, as well?) attributes probably should/would do the trick, would I be able to establish something, whereby every time I add a file, with a certain actors name, there would automatically be the data entry of those attributes?  I know, there's the global attribute, with which I can have a 'shorthand' way of entering the data, without errors, but what about making it automatic, each time I choose a certain name? 

[Mario]

If you are trying to create an actor database of sorts, a global attribute set would be the best option.
Store all the data per actor in that global Attribute set.
Add a reference Attribute to a per-file Attribute set, pointing at that global set.

Then you can link each file to one or more actors in the global set via a drop-down in the Attribute panel. This is as easy as it gets.
Select all files of the actor, select the name of the actor in the Attribute panel, done.
If there are multiple actors in the image, add one row per actor and select the actor from the global set.
How you display the data is then up to you. Its available in variables.

A hyperlink Attribute is plain text. You can add parameters etc. do it as you with. A long as the hyperlink is valid, IMatch can launch it in your default browser.

The 'proper' solution for your specific task is of course a custom IMatch app that uses the (somewhat undocumented) IMDB API or the documented and official OMDb (OpenMoview) API (http://www.omdbapi.com/) to query data about the actor in real-time. The app could run in an app panel and when you select a file somehow query the name of the actor (e.g. from the XMP headline or an Attribute) and then perform the lookup in OMDb, rendering the returned data in the app panel in a neat way.

Apps like this are not uncommon for commercial IMatch customers who need to link data and files stored in IMatch with data stored in external systems or the cloud.
I have written two of such special 'dashboard apps' myself and the results are very satisfactory.

The combination of IMatch and modern web technologies with IMatch Anywhere WebServices is extremely powerful. It makes such things not only possible but also fairly easy.

[Jingo]

Check out my "Translate and Fill" App... https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=9383.0 - perhaps it can be easily modified to create those global and "per file" reference links from a JSON file you supply.... of course, I could also look into one of these dashboard apps... although not many users seem to use these APPS, they are a very powerful extension to IMatch and I enjoy the challenge!